Mobile terminals appear in many different brands, shapes and types, adapted for use in one or more mobile telecommunications networks like GSM, UMTS, LTE, LTE Advanced, D-AMPS, CDMA2000, FOMA or TD-SCDMA.
In the early days of mobile telecommunications, the mobile terminals were used for speech communication only. The situation has of course changed dramatically since then. Nowadays, mobile terminals are also frequently used for professional, personal and recreational services and thus contain a plurality of application programs such as call handling, calendar, messaging, word processing, www browsing, etc. Such services and application programs are collectively referred to as mobile services in this document.
In recent years, mobile terminals have been introduced which are specifically adapted for use with telecare services. Broadly speaking, telecare is about offering remote care of elderly or physically less able people, providing the care and reassurance needed to allow them to remain living in their own homes. In the present invention, a mobile terminal is the tool used by an individual being remotely cared for. The telecare services may, for instance, involve any of the following: assistance, attendance, medical care, emergency service or rescue of the individual. It shall therefore be explicitly noticed that in the present invention, telemedicine services and/or telehealth services may be included in the notion telecare.
The present inventors have identified some drawbacks with existing telecare-enabled mobile terminals. One such identified drawback is that from the telecare provider's point of view, the provider is dependent on the user of the mobile terminal to order, pay for, renew and maintain a mobile network subscription. However, since the typical user of a telecare-enabled mobile terminal is an elderly, technically inapt and potentially disordered person, there is a risk that the user will in fact not duly attend to the mobile network subscription. A risk of impairment in operational security and reliability for the telecare service is therefore at hand.
The international application WO2012022276 discloses a set of units able to communicate one with each other by means of cooperating software, mutually control themselves and imagine displays from other units. Invention enables by means of indicated set or individual units as well, to make remote monitoring of persons and control their location, heath condition and capacity. Also, it enables to monitored persons to check their condition on mobile unit.
A wireless communication device, a method, and a computer program product that enable multiple subscriber numbers to be concurrently assigned to and supported within a single communication device, such as a wireless/cellular phone is described in the international application WO2007108811. The communication device is designed with circuit components and logic that allows two or more subscriber numbers to be concurrently programmed into the device. Each subscriber number is individually supported, with the logic also providing some overlapping functionality. A user selectively utilizes one of the subscriber numbers to originate a new call out and/or accept an incoming call to that subscriber number and may toggle between subscriber numbers to communicate on.
The international application WO2010140781 discloses a dual SIM terminal and an operating method thereof for supporting dual standby and single talk using a single baseband. The dual SIM mobile terminal may include a controller which is a single chipset, a dual SIM, and two radio frequency (RF) units, thereby having an effect capable of providing a service at the same level as a dual SIM using two mobile terminals even with one mobile terminal. Furthermore, dual SIM switching is performed according to a state of the network, a pricing system, and a user's setting, thereby providing the user's desired service.
Moreover, the present inventors have realized that a further risk of impairment in operational security and reliability for the telecare service comes from the fact that the user may—inadvertently—choose a mobile network subscription which is technically unsuitable for the telecare service(s) in terms of technical performance, signal coverage, or service availability.